"How far out is the ship that we have a visual confirmation of?"
"Four light minutes," Sassi answered. "Also, I have the primary AI back online, although most of its navigation database is toast."
"I'm not sure I understand the reference. What is 'toast'?"
"I'm sorry, Sir... most of the database was damaged and must be rebuilt from incremental backups. That's going to take several days, I'm afraid."
"So we can jump more quickly as long as we are not picky where we go?"
Sassi fluttered his low frequency antenna. "That is essentially correct, Sir."
"Very good, Lieutenant. Calculate a series of quick jumps. I want to jump in quick succession before that brute out there can track us. If we can lose him for a few days we can get that database rebuilt and jump someplace significantly safer."
"Sir, I already have such a solution set available. We can jump in three minutes…as soon as the ultra-capacitors are charged."
"Jump when ready," Running Stream said with a wink at Cat. This set of officers from the GCP were remarkably capable.
"Sir!" an Ensign at the sensor station yelled. "The Dreadnaught is changing course! They are targeting the dust cloud between us and them with low-yield nukes!"
Cat straightened in her seat. "Captain, I would suggest evasive maneuvers until we jump. The only reason I can think they would clear the dust cloud is because they plan on changing tactics."
As if to emphasize her point the bridge shook violently. If Cat hadn't already been rolling the ship along its primary axis to protect the shields, the vessel would have been holed when three powerful laser beams raked across her hull. The beams themselves weren't responsible for the violent shaking on the Bluefin. As the energetic rays hit the shields, a fractional percentage of the energy got through and hit the hull. Small amounts of the hull plating vaporized. It was the superheated material of her hull, ejecting at tremendous velocity from where the lasers were striking her shielding, that was responsible for the Bluefin's shaking.
Cat noted that both Ken and Ricky's remote sensors were showing a high-power burn of the Dreadnaughts reaction mass thrusters. They were attempting to close the gap and using a plasma beam, in addition to the nukes, to open a hole in the dust cloud for their massively powerful lasers to fire through.
"Sassi, estimate how long until our shields fail?" the Captain asked.
"Two minutes and fifteen seconds, Sir."
"How long before we can jump?"
"About two and a half minutes. We are in trouble unless..."
"Unless what?"
"Unless we turn the ship to expose our cargo bay. They'll chew it up pretty bad but there are no critical systems in the bay."
Cat caught Captain Running Stream's eye. "It will buy us the fifteen seconds we need."
"Keep rolling the ship as long as you can. When it looks like we are about to lose the lateral shields go ahead and position us to sacrifice the cargo bay."
Running Stream toggled his ship-wide comm.
"Attention crew of the Bluefin. We are moments from executing a jump that should grant us a reprieve from the relentless barrage we are suffering. Unfortunately our best estimates indicate our shields will fail before we can complete the jump. I need all personnel to evacuate decks six through eight and immediately forward of the aft promenade. Basically, anything near the cargo bay or its surrounding structures. Seal all airtight doors and prepare for fire suppression. You have..." He paused to look at Sassi.
"A minute and a half, Sir... tops."
"You have sixty seconds, so get a move on. Running Stream, out."
'Cat?' Ken Kirkland's voice intruded gently in Cat's consciousness. Normally her Heshe encounter unit simply processed incoming communication data and provided an auditory or visual facsimile. It was, however, capable of much more. Ken did not want the Admiral to react visibly to his communication so he encoded his conversation to represent itself as a stream-of-consciousness thought.
'What is it?' Cat thought back.
'I can extend my shields to protect the Bluefin. It would unfortunately give away my presence.'
'I've been thinking along those same lines and I may have a potential solution.'
'Let me guess' Ken thought. 'Detune my shields so that they are only partially effective.'
'The primary structural material seems to be a titanium ceramic alloy. Tune your shields to selectively block transmission frequencies that have absorption bands near the danger zones.'
'That will leave my ship vulnerable...' Ken started to say.
'Understood' Cat thought back. 'Have Ricky microjump the Honey Dipper into a position to selectively shield the Esperance.'
The gravity plating faltered before reengaging.
"The shields are beginning to fail. How long before we can jump?" Running Stream yelled.
Cat checked her board before answering. "Twelve seconds, Sir."
"This is it," Running Stream yelled.“Rotate ship to limit damage to the bays and prepare to jump!"
"Rotating ship, Sir! Jumping in six, five, four, two, one... Jump!"
The ship bucked wildly as Cat counted down the seconds until the hyperfold engines could be engaged. Cat knew that while the damage to the cargo bay was extensive it was not nearly as bad as it could have been.
"Systems check!" The Captain yelled as soon as the jump was complete. "Set navigation coordinates for the next jump."
"Coordinates set, Sir," Cat acknowledged. "Twenty five seconds to the next jump."
Running Stream punched the comm button on his command chair. "Engineering! Throw everything you’ve got into the engines. Burn out the relays if you need to but get those jump engines charged NOW!"
"Yes, Sir! Delivering 130 percent of rated load now. You can jump in ten seconds but don't ask to use the engines again for at least a day. We are going to fry all the control circuits."
"Navigator... jump the instant you see your board light up!"
"Roger that, Sir!" Cat answered crisply.
"Roger what?"
"Sir...YES, Sir!"
The main viewscreen lit up with a massive explosion. At the same time the young female officer at the sensor station started to yell a warning. Before anyone could react Cat hit the hyperfold button and the crippled Bluefinjumped…one last time.
"What the hell was that?" Captain Running Stream said as the ship came out of its hyperjump.
The young sensor officer spoke up meekly. "Sir, I'm pretty sure it was the Dreadnaught overloading it's reactor core. It followed us on that last jump. When it exited its hyperfold it was only a few hundred kilometers away. I was sure it was going to fire on us at point blank range, but instead—just as it began to fire—something went wrong and a feedback loop overloaded its core."
"A feedback loop?" Running Stream queried.
"Yes, Sir. Normally we would have no way of detecting such a thing, but as I said we were practically on top of one another."
'Cat' Ken again intruded silently on her thoughts. 'Ricky microjumped to the Dreadnaught to shield this ship. You should know... I've lost contact with him. He's gone.'
Ice ran down Cat's spine as she digested Ken's last thought. Ricky was Cat's oldest living friend. He was the man who had found the newly revived Air Force Lieutenant Commander Cat Kimbridge on Mars several years back. Was he still among the living? His little ship was heavily based on ultra-advanced Heshe technology. She supposed that gave him a chance. Her musings were interrupted by a warning light on her navigation board.
"Captain. We have a problem."
Chapter Eight: Beached...
The words: "Captain. We have a problem..." echoed through the bridge. Utter silence followed as the forward view screen cleared as if in response to the announcement. The sensors had finally come back online.
In front of the ship was a massive super-Jupiter orbiting a hot blue-white star of the spectral class A. The Bluefin was in a rapidly decaying orbit around the massive planet.
"Reverse thrusters!" Captain Running Stream yelled.
"Captain... if I may?" Cat said urgently.
"Go ahead, Commander."
"We are too deep in the planet's gravity well. The Bluefin's main thrusters could never have enough impulse to bring us out of that well. On the other hand, we already have a substantial forward momentum. I suggest forward thrusters and utilize the attitude control jets to nudge us into a vector suitable for a gravitational slingshot maneuver."
"It's risky... get the math wrong and we burn up."
"Sir, I believe it's our only viable option. Besides, that's why we have Sassi to do the math."
Running Stream looked at Cat then Sassi. His bridge crew had been decimated by recent events and, as unlikely as it would have seemed earlier in the day, he was now finding himself entrusting the safety of his ship and crew to these relative strangers. Of his own officers, only Kaskad the Ensign working the sensors and Skif his Weapons Officer were still functioning at their posts. Neither was as capable as these GCP officers, and neither was likely to offer an alternative to what was being proposed.
"Sir," Lieutenant Sassi said meekly. "I've run the numbers in my head based on what the computer is telling me about the Bluefin's mass. If those numbers are correct we have about thirty seconds to make a decision if we are going to hit the slingshot window."
"Then let's stop wasting time," Running Stream said to Sassi after a brief pause. "Work with the Commander; save this ship." He toggled ship-wide comm,“Everyone aboard, brace for imminent maneuvers.”
Cat acknowledged the Captain's command with a nod. She knew very well the thoughts that must be going through his head (or heads, as the case may be).
"Sassi give me a vector and a countdown."
"Aye, Commodore, I mean, Commander," Sassi's low frequency antenna twitched in agitation as he fed Cat's navigation boards the required vector information.
"Relax, Lieutenant," Cat said in a calm voice. "We are not exactly in well-charted waters here."
"Coming up on main thruster ignition in three, two, one... FIRE!"
Cat pressed the ignition button. The gravity compensators masked the acceleration but the forward viewscreen showed the unknown planet's swirling atmosphere begin to enlarge as the Bluefin raced towards it.
"The thermal load on the forward shields are at 89 percent rated capacity and rising; 92 percent, 97 percent,…Captain! The shields are at 103 percent and holding, but God only knows for how long!" Ensign Kaskad yelled.
The bridge was shaking wildly as the gravity compensators attempted to reduce the effects of the atmospheric turbulence.
"Max Q in three seconds!" Sassi yelled above the background noise. Cat gritted her teeth and held onto the shaking console with both hands. The others did the same.
"Now falling off maximum dynamic pressure and pulling away from the planet."
Cat leaned back in her chair and took a deep breath. Another few seconds and she was sure all they would have been were so many grease spots on some rock no one would ever visit.
"Status!" Running Stream shouted.
"Engineering is reporting the Jump drive is offline," Commander Skif reported from his weapon's board. "Shields are a mess and it looks like our primary reactor is going to need some work too. Right now we are on auxiliary power."
Cat checked her board and looked up at the Captain with unmistakable concern in her eyes. "Sir, the mains are bled dry. We have no more chemical thrusters. Our attitude thrusters have 30 percent left in the tanks and that is it."
"Ok, that's the bad news," the Modos Captain said. "What's the good news?"
"Sir," Ensign Kaskad said meekly. "That is the good news."
***
The Bluefin conference room just off the bridge was luxurious. Running Stream had explained that such rooms were often used for negotiations during their previous tour. Now, however, the room was a shambles. The day's battles had taken their toll. The Bluefin had survived the attacks but she was now barely space worthy and only marginally under power.
Around the center table sat Ensign Kaskad, Commander Nicked Fin, the chief engineer, Sassi, Cat, and Captain Running Stream. The medical officer, a Lieutenant Commander Lacidem had been linked in on video from the surgical bay.
The doctor and her staff were busy treating the numerous injuries that had been sustained during the series of attacks. Including the three lost on the bridge, the Bluefin crew was forced to say goodbye to eleven personnel. Cat knew the pain Running Stream was so careful to repress as he directed repair and recover operations like a seasoned symphony conductor. Cat knew the pain because she was feeling it herself. The loss of Ricky Valen weighed heavily on her soul and she dare not even acknowledge the pain or his sacrifice might be for naught.
"So," Captain Running Stream continued. "We are no longer leaking air. Power levels are stable and we are no longer in danger of a crash landing."
Cat looked up from her portable computer interface. "That is essentially correct sir. But we are heading out into open space. Unless we adjust our course we may never see landfall again."
Running Stream tapped his nasal trunk on the table much like a human might drum their fingers. "Steering mass is very limited. We have to choose wisely when making any adjustments. Lieutenant Sassi, there is a habitable moon in this system. Can we adjust our course to intercept it?"
"We can, Sir... but not directly. We are somewhat fuel constrained. We can put the Bluefin in a precessing elliptical orbit that will get us into position in about sixteen orbits around the planet. The problem is the elliptical orbit will repeatedly dip us into the planet's magnetosphere. The sun here is pretty hot and puts out a lot of charged material. This material tends to collect in a radiation belt defined by the magnetosphere. Things will get pretty toasty."
"Can our shields handle it?"
"Not with the damage we took to the cargo bay. We might survive one or two passes but not sixteen."
Captain Running Stream looked at Cat expectantly.
"Sir?" she said.
"I'm not stupid Commander…or should I say Commodore? That dreadnaught blew up for a reason and that reason was NOT this ship. Dust clouds mysteriously appeared at just the right time and position to offer protection. You seem to be an amazingly quick study with our control systems. The inescapable conclusion is you are NOT operating alone. The hows and whys are no longer important to me. This ship needs options. I need options."
"Actually," Cat said resolutely, "it’s not Commander or Commodore. It’s Admiral. You are of course correct in your assessment." Standing to face the Captain, Cat spoke into the open air. "Ken, please introduce yourself to Captain Running Stream."
"Greetings, Captain." The voice came through the ship's internal speaker system. "I am Commander Ken Kirkland. Right now I am attached to the side of your ship in a cloaked pinnace. I must admit, Sir, you are not what I expected to find when we began this mission three weeks ago."
"Commander, my compliments," Running Stream said with a broad smile on his face. "You and your compatriots are exactly what I was hoping to find when I began MY mission. I hope that fate affords me an opportunity to explain that mission. For the moment, however, I have another concern."
"Captain, I have been monitoring your situation. I can extend my shuttle's shields to protect the Bluefin from the radiation belt. The shielding will be pretty tenuous covering a volume that big, but it should be enough if you confine your crew and passengers to the inner corridors."
Cat smiled at Captain Running Stream and extended a hand. The Bearephant-Modos symbiote shook it in the fashion of humans. "I trust you will forgive the deception," Cat said with a wink.
"Of course, Admiral. I hope once I've had a chance to explain what the Bluefin is all about, you and I will enjoy a better and more open working relationship."
"We'll see," Cat said cryptically. "In the meantime we have a ship to save. Can I assume you want me to maintain my post at navigation?"
; "If you would be so kind," the Bearephant said with a slight nod of his head.
***
Ricky Valen had a headache. More to the point, his head and just about every other part of him ached.
"What the hell happened?" The voice he heard was coarse and ragged. It took a moment to realize it was his own.
The lighting on the bridge of the Honey Dipper sputtered and flickered somewhat randomly. The smell of ozone filled the air. He realized that the atmospheric recirculators seemed to be offline.
"Honey?"
"Yes, Cap'n?"
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